


Rise and Fall

by bri_ness



Category: SKAM Austin
Genre: Dance because Skam Austin isn't giving me enough of it, F/F, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 05:36:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14948546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bri_ness/pseuds/bri_ness
Summary: Shay dances with Megan.





	Rise and Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is a short, not-great thing I wrote very quickly, but I had to explore Shay's POV after last night's episode. Hope you like it!

**Tyler**

                                                            Hey  
Don’t you and Mar have somewhere to be  
Get us food  
Or do laps around the block  
I don’t care  
Just leave

            Haha why are you still here

Is she even worth it

Yes

Fine fine I’ll gift you with my absence

                                   

“Ok, who’s coming with me to get pizza?” Tyler asks. Shay’s in his garage with Megan and Marlon.  

“Not me,” Shay says.

“Fuck that, I go every time,” Marlon says.

“I don’t trust you and Megan alone in my garage,” Tyler says. “It’s not the right setting for an afterschool special, so you’re coming.”

Marlon sighs, but stands up. “You could just go alone.”

“If I go alone, I’m eating the entire pizza in my car. You know this, and therefore it’s on you to prevent it. Let’s go.”

Marlon kisses Megan before they leave, which seems unnecessary to Shay. The place is only five minutes away. But she watches Megan as the guys leave, slouching like she’s more comfortable, smiling like it’s easier without their presence.

It gives Shay just enough hope, at least until Megan pulls out her phone.

“Who are you texting?” she asks.

“Kelsey,” Megan says. “I just asked her when we’re actually going to practice.”

“Your dance team doesn’t dance?”

Megan sighs as she shrugs. “Not yet.”

And Shay knows this is her opportunity, the chance to connect with Megan in a way Marlon can’t. “Do you miss it?”

“The Kittens?”

“No. Just dance in general."

“Yeah? But I missed that even when I was on the Kittens.”

Megan does that: every sentence invites questions. It’s left Shay endlessly and frustratingly fascinated by her. “What are you even talking about?”

“It’s not like synchronized turns in front of football players was my dream performance.”

 _Say more_ , Shay pleads. _Tell me everything_ , but if she won’t offer it, Shay will prompt her until she does. “Ok, then what was?”

Megan scrunches her face up and as beautiful as she is, she’s also cute. It’s too fucking much. “Marlon doesn’t even know this.”

Which means she trusts Shay more than Marlon, and that’s giving Shay too much hope. “You’re really building the suspense if you’re about to tell me you always dreamed of being a ballerina.”

Megan shakes her head. “No, it’s not that. Before I started in jazz and hip-hop, I took ballroom lessons. And not just Latin stuff, I mean _ballroom_  ballroom _._ I love the Viennese Waltz.”

Shay laughs. “I don’t even know what the fuck that is.”

“It’s elegance.” Megan sits up, sticking her chin in the air. “Grace, dignity.”

Shay frowns because she is definitely not those things, until Megan continues, “But it’s more than that: it’s your connection with your partner. It’s love.”

“Love?”

Megan smirks as she nods, embracing her cheesy passion. It’s a good look on her. “Mhm. I tried to teach Marlon, but he wasn’t into it.”

Well, Shay is nothing if not opportunistic.

“Teach me, then.”

“Seriously?”

Shay stands up. “Yeah, I want to learn.”

 Megan furrows her eyebrows, so Shay extends her arm to pull her off the couch. “I’m serious,” Shay says. “You lead, I’ll follow.”

“Yeah, ok.”

It’s a blur from there, instructions about hold, counting, the rise and fall—but mostly their hands together, their bodies close, their laughter drowning out the Viennese Waltz music Megan had on her Spotify, and _who the fuck just has Viennese Waltz music on their Spotify?_ But Shay’s so, so grateful she does, until it’s interrupted by the sound of Tyler’s car pulling into the driveway.

If Megan hears it, it doesn’t stop her from pulling Shay closer, explaining that in the Viennese Waltz, you don’t actually look at your partner while you’re in hold. “So the moments you break it and connect,” she says, tilting her head towards Shay. “You have to make it count.”

Shay is damn well trying. As Megan takes her face in her hands, Shay rises.

“Oh what the fuck, you’re making Shay dance?”

Megan breaks away from her at the sound of Marlon’s voice, and Shay falls. She’s fucking mastered that aspect of the dance.

“She _wanted_ to learn,” Megan says, letting Marlon wrap her arm around her. “Will you take lessons from her?”

“So I can learn a patriarchal, hetero-normative dance?”

Tyler coughs. Marlon can really be a fucking idiot.

“What are you even talking about?” Megan asks.

“The man always leads and the woman always follows? So it’s impossible for a same-sex couple to do it, or anyone in the twenty-first century—”

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Megan says. “Shay and I figured it out.”

“Are you going to go on Dancing with the Stars now?”

“Absolutely. When she’s famous—”

“You mean the band.”

“I don’t, so anyway, when she’s famous, I’ll be a pro and she’ll be my celebrity partner. And we will win that Mirrorball Trophy.”

It’s not a bad alternative universe.

Shay’s phone buzzes in her pocket. 

**Tyler**

Are you going to make me watch dancing with the stars now

No  
I’m going to make you practice the whatever waltz with me  
So I can impress her with it

Foolproof      

            Only reason I’m enlisting your help  
Seriously though  
I get her more than Marlon does  
And she might not be totally straight

Yeah I don’t know  
Just don’t get your hopes up

Shay looks up from her phone to find Megan kissing Marlon. And it’s fine, it really is—it’s just the rise and fall, and that’s how the dance goes.

Shay will just make sure the moments they connect count.


End file.
